You're Not Getting Away From Me

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Oops

Percy's POV

Well, we were wrong. People did notice and they did care. Oops. I woke up, all comfortable, Annabeth curled up in my arms. I slept better last night than any other night this summer, despite the threat looming over our heads. Annabeth made it so much easier to sleep: I always felt better knowing she was with me. Asleep or not, I trusted her more than anyone else in the world to have my back.

    So anyway, here I am, all snuggled up soundly with my beautiful girlfriend, and someone comes breaking down my door and shouting. It woke up Annabeth, and she accidently about knocked me off the bed.

    "PERCY?" Bang, rattle, thump, bang. "PERCY?"

    I hurried over to the door and threw it open. I was met by a very distressed Jason.

    "Dude! Glad you're in here!" Then he tackled me in a hug.

    "Um... okay?" I answered. "Good morning to you, too, Superman."

    "So... um... well... Percy, I'm sorry."

    My heart dropped to my stomach. Jason looked at me with pain in his eyes.

    "What's wrong?"

    "When Malcolm woke up this morning... Annabeth wasn't there."

    "Yeah, 'cause I'm right here," Annabeth said, coming to stand beside me.

    Jason just stared at us for a minute. I finally said something.

    "Bro, you had me worried there. Don't do that."

    "I. Had. You. Worried? We literally searched the camp. Half of us were having panic attacks. YOU CAN'T JUST DISAPPEAR WHEN A TITAN WANTS YOU DEAD!"

    I looked at Annabeth, then back at Jason.

    "Sorry?" Annabeth and I said in unison.

    "Don't apologize to me. Save it for my sister." Was he smirking?

    The three of us left my cabin to go inform everyone that Annabeth wasn't missing... Don't worry guys, we just broke the rules and didn't bother to think that it might be a bad time.

    We walked to the dining pavilion. Campers were in a frenzy. Jason cleared his throat loudly. Everyone whipped around. I waved meekly.

"Hey guys," Annabeth added embarrassedly.

Thalia literally somersaulted over a table and crushed Annabeth in a hug.

"HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO ME? I THINK I HAD A HEART ATTACK!" she yelled. Then she turned to me. I tried to shrink back against one of the pillars. "I BET IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, KELP-FOR-BRAINS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY ANNIE, TURNING HER INTO A TROUBLE-MAKER?" She then proceeded to whack me with her bow, over and over again.

"Oh, get over it Pine-face. I'm so glad you guys are okay!" Grover hugged us while he said this. We were then hugged or slapped by various people, Piper and Hazel doing both. When everyone was done, we were left standing awkwardly alone. Annabeth shifted uncomfortably, her shoulders hunched over, looking at the ground.

I looked over at Chiron. His expression was hard to read. Annabeth saw it, too. Then she made a weird noise in the back of her throat and refocused her attention to the floor again. I sighed and nudged her with my hand. She looked up at me briefly, then went to go sit at the Athena table. Ouch.

I shuffled over to the Poseidon table and sat down, hard. Chiron started talking. I didn't listen even though I knew it was important. I was worried I'd screwed up. It was my suggestion last night, now Annabeth was taking a lot of the hit. I honestly didn't think it would be a big deal. But now my girlfriend was probably mad at me.

Girlfriend. I hated that. I was supposed to propose last night. I was supposed to be able to call her my fiancee this morning. But Titans trapped under the sky aren't supposed to ruin everything. Now I've probably messed everything up. All I want to do is get married, but I might have just ruined it.